GRACE, 13, BEATS EX-COUNTY CHAMPION.

FOR somebody who took up golf only three years ago, 13-year-old Grace Anderson is getting results, having beaten a former champion in the last 16 of the Northumberland Ladies Championship.

Having come through the strokeplay qualifying at Ponteland paired with the county captain, Angela Rumney, Anderson went to the 19th to beat Kim McKenna, the ex-title holder from the Tynemouth club, and, at 40, over three times her age.

"Grace was a long hitter and very mature for her age," said McKenna. "I was particularly impressed with her controlled wedge play. She was able to make the ball stop." Even though the quarter-finals were a bridge too far for Anderson, the Central Newcastle High School pupil, a member of the Morpeth club, can reflect on a step forward which led to her being named as reserve for the Northern County Match Week team at Heswall in Cheshire on June 21-26. "I learned a lot from playing golf against both Angela and Kim," said Anderson. "I took in how consistent Angela was in plotting her way round the course, and watching Kim pace out her yardages made me realise how important that was. I enjoyed the whole experience." Anderson is advised by the EGU North Region coach, John Harrison, and Pat Smillie, the England junior coach, based at the Wilton club in Redcar.

"I get to each of them once a month," she said. "And they are very professional in that they liaise with each other about my game and complement each other.

"The county ladies and the officials at the English Women's Golf Association have also been helpful and I am grateful to everybody." The daughter of Morpeth GP Peter Anderson, a member of Bamburgh Castle, she started golf as a junior at her father's club.

He said: "A county event was a step-up from Grace's usual oneround club tournament in that there were officials in buggies, spectators watching and a scoreboard, in all a valuable and memorable experience."

Anderson's mother, Jane, said: "The championship was a magical occasion. All the county ladies were kind to her and after her first round match finished late, she was even buggied back to the clubhouse so she had time for lunch." .. PAULINE Dobson of South Moor is going for a hat-trick of titles in the Durham County Championship at Chester-le- Street, who staged the men's event last season.

There are six juniors in the starting line-up: Rebecca McGinley, also South Moor, along with the Woodham pair of Rebecca Horner and Stephanie Peareth plus Tanya Baxter (Ryton), Hayley Spence (Hobson) and Charlotte Hindmoor (Blackwell Grange).

In last year's final, against McGinley, Dobson was three down after 10 holes before battling back to stamp her name on the cup for the fifth time, her previous victories arriving in 1991, 1994 and 1998.

Tomorrow's strokeplay qualifying leads into the two-day matchplay stages, with the final held on Sunday..

CAPTION(S):

GREAT GAME Grace Anderson is cheered by fellow Newcastle Central High School pupils.